Activity Level as a Moderator of the Relationship between Child and Maternal Anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety is excessive and impairing for approximately 30% of individuals. Families with anxiety problems tend to pass on those problems to their children, specifically due to a variety of factors: genetics, parenting style, and other environmental risks. On the other hand, promoting behaviors like positive activity scheduling, participation in clubs, and physical activity has been shown to decrease symptoms of anxiety. However, research has yet to focus on this relationship by increasing activity level (e.g., participation in organizations, hobbies, sports). The purpose of this study is to investigate if the relationship between maternal and child anxiety is dependent upon the child’s activity level. Participants were extracted from an existing database at Louisiana State University where they previously completed measures on child anxiety, maternal anxiety, and the number of hobbies, clubs, and sports the child participated in. Data was analyzed using three separate moderated hierarchical regression models. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between child-reported anxiety and mother self-reported anxiety. It was also hypothesized that the relationship between maternal and child anxiety would be most strongly moderated by the child’s reported level of sport participation; number of organizations and hobbies were hypothesized to also moderate this relationship. Overall, the relationship between maternal and child anxiety was not significant. For hobbies, data suggested that participating in more hobbies strengthens the relationship between maternal and child anxiety, which was unexpected. For organizations, those who participated in three organizations, compared to other groups, had lower anxiety scores. For three sports, compared to all other levels, the relationship was linear, and slightly less positive than the other levels.